Admit it. You’ve got part of a shelf dedicated to books about Disney. You diehards out there might even have a whole shelf or more! They might be theme park related, or dedicated to Walt Disney, or perhaps based on the animated features. I’m sure that a good number of you have some of each category – most of our libraries are a mishmash.

My library is comprised of over 220 books at present, and it grows each month. For me, it began in 1987 with Randy Bright’s book Disneyland: The Inside Story (ghostwritten by Bruce Gordon). I picked it up in the park because I was a "New Hire" at the time and just fascinated with the place, and this seemed a good way to investigate the magic a little better. It helped that the Bright book featured photographs different from the typical hardcover tourist book, too!

I didn’t get hooked right away, though. The late 1990s saw an explosion in theme park books – which was my initial interest – and I only bought park books until I found myself suddenly bitten by a collector’s bug. Not coincidentally, this occurred at the same time as I discovered eBay and developed an "eBaydiction." The vast majority of my library was bought in this fashion, mostly in the eBay category Collectibles: Disneyana: Contemporary (1968-Now): Books.

Many of my books are therefore considered used, but naturally this matters little. The after-market in books is a great place to find bargains, and I have every reason to believe that it’s not too late for you to jump into collecting, too, if you’re so inclined. (We've even included Amazon purchase links after each title that is still in print to help you out.) My complete library list follows this article, but I’ll also provide some "must-have’s" for each category of books:

Animator (Auto)Biography

Academic Disney (cultural/sociological)

62. Disney Story - Some Myths Exploded (Edward Disney) – note: out of print, hard to find

63. Disney Studio Story (Richard Holliss) CLICK TO BUY

64. Disney That Never Was (Charles Solomon) CLICK TO BUY

65. Disney Theme Park Songbook: Remember the Magic CLICK TO BUY

66. Disney: The First 100 Years (David Smith) CLICK TO BUY

67. Disney: The Mouse Betrayed (Peter Schweizer) CLICK TO BUY

68. Disney Touch (Ron Grover) CLICK TO BUY

69. Disney Trivia 1984 Fun Facts & Fantasy Book – note: out of print, hard to find

70. Disney Version (Richard Schickel) CLICK TO BUY

71. Disney Villains (Johnston/Thomas) CLICK TO BUY

72. Disney Way (Bill Capodagli) CLICK TO BUY

73. Disney's Aladdin Making of an Animated Classic (John Culhane) CLICK TO BUY

74. Disney’s Animation Magic (Don Hahn) CLICK TO BUY

75. Disney’s Art of Animation (Bob Thomas) CLICK TO BUY

76. Disney’s Lost Chords (Russel Schroeder) – note: out of print, hard to find

77. Disney’s World (Mosely) CLICK TO BUY

78. Disneyana (Robert Heide) CLICK TO BUY

79. Disneyland (Valerie Childs) CLICK TO BUY

80. Disneyland: Celebrating 45 Years of Magic – note: out of print, hard to find

81. Disneyland Detective (Kendra Trahan) CLICK TO BUY

82. Disneyland: Dreams, Traditions, Transitions – note: out of print, hard to find

83. Disneyland Hotel: The Early Years (Donald Ballard) CLICK TO BUY

84. Disneyland Inside Story (Randy Bright) CLICK TO BUY

85. Disneyland: Now, Then, Forever (2005)  – note: out of print, hard to find

86. Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime  – note: out of print, hard to find

87. Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality (Didier Ghez) CLICK FOR MORE INFO

88. Disneyland: The First Quarter Century – note: out of print, hard to find

89. Disneyland: The First Thirty-Five Years – note: out of print, hard to find

90. Disneyland World of Flowers (Alfred Morgan Evans) CLICK TO BUY

91. Disneylands That Never Were (Shaun Finnie) CLICK TO BUY

92. Disneyland’s Hidden Mickeys (Steven Barrett) CLICK TO BUY

93. Disney War (James Stewart) CLICK TO BUY

94. Encyclopedia of Disney’s Animated Characters (Dave Smith) CLICK TO BUY

95. Enter if you dare (Haunted Mansion) CLICK TO BUY

96. Epcot Center: Creating the New World of Tomorrow (Richard Beard) CLICK TO BUY

97. EuroDisney Hardbound Souvenir Book 1992 – note: out of print, hard to find

98. Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain: The Journey Begins

99. Fantasia (Culhane) 1987 reprint of 1983 copyright – note: out of print, hard to find CLICK TO BUY

100. Fantasia 2000: Visions of Hope (John Culhane) CLICK TO BUY

101. From Mouse to Mermaid (Bell etc) CLICK TO BUY

102. From Plantation to Theme Park: The Ward Kimball (Steve DeGaetano) CLICK FOR INFO

103. Gardens of Walt Disney World CLICK TO BUY

104. Golden Age of Walt Disney Records (Murray) CLICK TO BUY

105. Gospel According to Disney CLICK TO BUY

106. Hand Behind the Mouse (Iwerks) CLICK TO BUY

107. Hassle-Free Walt Disney World Vacation 2007 (Steven Barrett) CLICK TO BUY

108. Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies (Jason Surrell) CLICK TO BUY

109. Hidden Mickeys at Walt Disney World (Steven Barrett) CLICK TO BUY

110. Hollywood’s Dark Prince (Marc Eliot) CLICK TO BUY

111. Illusion of Life (Johnson) CLICK TO BUY

112. Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Animal Kingdom (Alex Wright) CLICK TO BUY

113. Imagineering Field Guide to Epcot (Alex Wright) CLICK TO BUY

114. Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom (Alex Wright) CLICK TO BUY

115. Inside the Dream (Greene) CLICK TO BUY

116. Inside the Magic Kingdom: Seven Keys to Disney’s Success (Connellan) CLICK TO BUY

117. Inside the Mouse: At Work and Play at WDW (Willis etc.) CLICK TO BUY

118. It’s a Small World Souvenir Book 1978 – note: out of print, hard to find

119. Keys to the Kingdom: How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip (Kim Masters) CLICK TO BUY

120. Lilo & Stitch: Collected Stories (Wakabayashi) CLICK TO BUY

121. Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway CLICK TO BUY

122. Little Railways of the World (Frederic Shaw) CLICK TO BUY

123. Living Desert (Jane Werner) – note: out of print, hard to find

124. Magic Kingdom (Steven Watts) CLICK TO BUY

125. Magic Quizdom (Yee/Schultz) CLICK FOR MORE INFO

126. Making of Disney’s Animal Kingdom (Melody Malmberg) CLICK TO BUY

127. Making of Pinocchio – note: out of print, hard to find CLICK TO BUY

128. Man Behind the Magic (Katharine and Richard Greene) CLICK TO BUY

129. Marking the Millennium (WDW) – note: out of print, hard to find

130. Married to the Mouse (Richard Fogelsong) CLICK TO BUY

131. Memoirs (David Hand) – note: out of print, hard to find CLICK TO BUY

132. Mickey Mouse Club Book (Lorraine Santoli) CLICK TO BUY

133. More Mouse Tales (David Koenig) CLICK TO BUY

134. Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Films (Annalee Ward) CLICK TO BUY

135. Mouse Tales (David Koenig) CLICK TO BUY

136. Mouse That Roared : Disney and the End of Innocence (Henry A. Giroux) CLICK TO BUY

137. Mouse Tracks (Holliss / Ehrbahr) CLICK TO BUY

138. Mouse Under Glass (David Koenig) CLICK TO BUY

139. Mousecatraz (Wesley Jones) CLICK TO BUY

140. Music of Disney: A Legacy in Song CLICK TO BUY

141. Musical World of Walt Disney (David Tietyen) CLICK TO BUY

142. Nickel Tour (Bruce Gordon/David Mumford) CLICK TO BUY

143. Once upon an American Dream: The Story of Euro Disneyland (Andrew Lainsbury) CLICK TO BUY

144. Once Upon a Time: Walt Disney, The Sources of Inspiration for the Disney Studios (Bruno Girveau) CLICK TO BUY

145. One Day at Disney (Wendy Lefkon, Ed.) CLICK TO BUY

146. One of Walt’s Boy’s (Harry Tytle) – note: out of print, hard to find CLICK TO BUY

147. Our Friend the Atom (Heinz Haber) CLICK TO BUY

148. Paper Dreams (John Canemaker) CLICK TO BUY

149. PassPorter Disneyland (Jennifer Marx) CLICK TO BUY

150. Passport Disney Cruise Line (Jennifer Marx) CLICK TO BUY

151. PassPorter’s Treasure Hunts at WDW (Jennifer Marx) CLICK TO BUY

152. PassPorter Walt Disney World (Jennifer Marx) CLICK TO BUY

153. Photographer’s Life with Disney Under Construction Vol. 1 (Thie) CLICK TO BUY

154. Photographer’s Life with Disney Under Construction Vol. 2 (Thie) CLICK TO BUY

155. Pictorial Memory of the Walt Disney World Resort (2005)  – note: out of print, hard to find

156. Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland (Fighting Pirate Concept art cover) – note: out of print, hard to find

157. Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland and Walt Disney World (Auctioneer Scene Cover) – note: out of print, hard to find

158. Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies (Jason Surrell) CLICK TO BUY

159. Prince of the Magic Kingdom (Joe Flower) CLICK TO BUY

160. Queens in the Kingdom (Epstein / Shapiro) CLICK TO BUY

161. Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World (David Koenig) CLICK TO BUY

162. Remembering Walt (Amy Green) CLICK TO BUY

163. Riding the Black Ship: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland (Aviad E. Raz) CLICK TO BUY

164. Rollercoasters, Flumes and Flying Saucers (Robert Reynolds) CLICK TO BUY

165. Screenplay by Disney (Jason Surrell) CLICK TO BUY

166. Secrets of Disney’s Glorious Gardens (Kevin Markey) CLICK TO BUY

167. Secrets of Disney’s Haunted Mansion (Jeff Baham) – note: out of print, hard to find

168. Send a Message to Mickey - the ABCs of Making Your Voice Heard (Richard Land) CLICK TO BUY

169. Since the World Began (Jeff Kurtti) CLICK TO BUY

170. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs & The Making Of The Classic Film CLICK TO BUY

171. Storming the Magic Kingdom (Taylor) CLICK TO BUY

172. Story of Disney (Spirit of Success) CLICK TO BUY

173. Story of Walt Disney (Diane Disney) – note: out of print, hard to find CLICK TO BUY

174. Tarzan Chronicles (Howard E. Green) CLICK TO BUY

175. Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World (Carl Hiasson) CLICK TO BUY

176. Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out (Sean Griffin) CLICK TO BUY

177. Today in History: Disney (Eve Zibert) – note: out of print, hard to find

178. Treasure Planet - The Legend, the Lore, and the Loot (Jeff Kurtti) CLICK TO BUY

179. Treasures of Disney Animation Art (John Canemaker) CLICK TO BUY

180. True-Life Adventures – note: out of print, hard to find CLICK TO BUY

181. Ultimate Disney Trivia Book (Kevin Neary/David Smith) CLICK TO BUY

182. Ultimate Disney Trivia Vol II (Kevin Neary/David Smith) CLICK TO BUY

183. Ultimate Disney Trivia Book Vol III (Kevin Neary/David Smith) CLICK TO BUY

184. Understanding Disney: The Manufacture of Fantasy (Janet Wasko) CLICK TO BUY

185. Unofficial Dining Guide to Walt Disney World (Yee) CLICK FOR MORE INFO

186. Unofficial Disney Companion (Zibart) CLICK TO BUY

187. Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World

188. Vinyl Leaves (Steven Fjellman) CLICK TO BUY

189. Walt: Backstage Adventures With Walt Disney (Charles Shows) CLICK TO BUY

190. Walt Disney (Barbara Ford) CLICK TO BUY

191. Walt Disney: A Bio-Bibliography (Kathy Merlock Jackson) CLICK TO BUY

192. Walt Disney: American Original (Bob Thomas) CLICK TO BUY

193. Walt Disney and Assorted Characters (Jack Kinney) CLICK TO BUY

194. Walt Disney: Creator of Magical Worlds (Charnan Simon) CLICK TO BUY

195. Walt Disney: Creator of Mickey Mouse (Michael Cole) CLICK TO BUY

196. Walt Disney and Europe; European Influences ... (Robin Allan) CLICK TO BUY

197. Walt Disney: Famous Quotes (David Smith) – note: out of print, hard to find CLICK TO BUY

198. Walt Disney: His Life in Pictures (Diane Disney) CLICK TO BUY

199. Walt Disney Imagineering (Bruce Gordon/David Mumford) CLICK TO BUY

200. Walt Disney: Magician of the Movies (Bob Thomas) – note: out of print, hard to find CLICK TO BUY

201. Walt Disney: Maker of Magic Worlds (Bernice Seldon) CLICK TO BUY

202. Walt Disney Railroad Story (Michael Broggie) CLICK TO BUY

203. Walt Disney: Triumph of the American Imagination (Neal Gabler) CLICK TO BUY

204. Walt Disney World (1986) – note: out of print, hard to find

205. Walt Disney World: 20 Magical Years – note: out of print, hard to find

206. Walt Disney World Architecture (anonymous) – note: out of print, hard to find

207. Walt Disney World for Couples (Rick and Gayle Perlmutter) – note: no longer updated CLICK TO BUY

208. Walt Disney World of Entertainment – note: out of print, hard to find

209. Walt Disney World Magical Year-by Year Journey (Lefkon) – note: out of print, hard to find

210. Walt Disney World: The First Decade – note: out of print, hard to find

211. Walt Disney’s America (anonymous) – note: out of print, hard to find

212. Walt Disney’s Disneyland (Marty Sklar) – note: out of print, hard to find

213. Walt Disney’s Golden Touch (anonymous) – note: out of print, hard to find

214. Walt Disney's Legends of Imagineering and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park (Kurtti) CLICK TO BUY

215. Walt Disney’s Missouri (Burnes) CLICK TO BUY

216. Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men (Canemaker) CLICK TO BUY

217. Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs & the Making of the Classic Film (Richard Holliss) CLICK TO BUY

218. Walt Disney's Treasury of Cartoon Classics (Darlene Geis, Ed.) CLICK TO BUY

219. Walt Disney’s World of Fantasy (Adrian Bailey) CLICK TO BUY

220. Walt in Wonderland (Russell Merritt) CLICK TO BUY

221. Walt’s People Vol. I (Didier Ghez) CLICK TO BUY

222. Walt’s People Vol. II (Didier Ghez) CLICK TO BUY

223. Walt’s Revolution by the Numbers (Harrison Price) CLICK TO BUY

224. Walt’s Time: The Sherman Brothers (Sherman) CLICK TO BUY

225. Welcome Aboard the Disneyland Railroad (Steve DeGaetano) CLICK FOR INFO

226. What Would Walt Do (D. M. Miller) CLICK TO BUY

227. Window on Main Street (Van Arsdale France) CLICK TO BUY

228. Wonderful World of Disney Television (Bill Cotter) CLICK TO BUY

229. Work in Progress (Michael Eisner/Stephen Schwartz) CLICK TO BUY

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My Newest Book:
The Unofficial Dining Guide to Walt Disney World
(2007 Edition)

An indispensable reference tool for vacationers in Orlando, this book brings you all the menus and individual prices from restaurants around Walt Disney World, including parks, hotels, and even Downtown Disney. Updated several times within each year, The Unofficial Dining Guide to Walt Disney World lists complete menus from every eatery and provides actual dollar amounts, not just approximations. Best of all, handy indexes for each park make it simple to find the food items you're looking for at a quick glance. There's even a guide (and index) for restaurants near the Walt Disney World, should you wish to venture off-property. Everything you'd ever want to know about the dining experience at Disney World is here, making it not only an ideal tool for planning your trip, but a perfect companion when visiting the parks.

The Unofficial Dining Guide to Walt Disney World offers more than just complete menus and prices for all restaurants at Walt Disney World. Every aspect of the dining experience is covered here: available discounts, purchasing the Dining Plan, when and how to make reservations, and even character dining.

Each restaurant in Walt Disney World has a page dedicated to it, so it's a snap to browse through the entire theme park's offerings all at once. With this book in hand, you won't need to cross the whole park to find out just which food items are offered, or exactly how much each of them costs. Save time, save money, and get exactly the food you want instead of settling for a second or third choice simply to get back to riding attractions.

Visitors with special needs or cravings will find the indexes especially helpful. Got a finicky eater in your family? Enduring food cravings yourself? Trying to steer clear of some food items due to allergies or preferences? The indexes make it all easy. In addition to offering the ultimate resource for searching food items, the indexes for each park also serve to generate ideas. Hungry but not sure what you'd like to eat? Just browse through the alphabetical index and scan the listings until something looks good.

If you're still unsure, consult the recommendations for each theme park, covering such topics as "best value," "best fine dining," and "best escape from the weather outside." Or browse through the book while waiting in lines for attractions, and brush up on your restaurant trivia, included whenever there is space on the page.

The Unofficial Dining Guide to Walt Disney World has it all. What better way to plan your vacation and expenses in advance? What tool could be more useful to bring along in the parks?

As I wrote it, my thoughts flooded with all the situations where having such a book would be invaluable:

• You're in line for Space Mountain and suddenly feeling hungry for baked ziti. Most Cast Members don't know the menus that well, so you'd normally need to travel through the entire park, checking each menu.
• It's lunchtime, and your party wants to visit the American Adventure at Epcot but you want to eat. You won't have time to check the menus at the America, Italy, and Japan pavilions manually and still have time to eat before they finish the attraction.
• Your family is sitting in the hotel room, wondering what the restaurants in this hotel have to offer and how expensive they are.
• You have a child who is a picky eater and you need to know exactly which menu items are available at a given restaurant, and prefer not to walk all over the park to find out. Guest Services also does not have the full menu.
• You want to kill time waiting in line for Tower of Terror and might as well plan your dinner that evening.
• You're pregnant and suffer from food cravings that are different every day—who knows what you'll want today?
• You're on a budget vacation and want to leave Disney property to save money on restaurant bills, but don't know the streets and have no idea what kinds of restaurants there are nearby. Furthermore, you don't relish just driving around without a destination.
• Someone in your party wants to park-hop to another park, but everyone is undecided if you should eat in the first park or the second park.
• Your vacation package includes the prepaid Dining Plan and you're looking to maximize the value of the coupons by searching for the most expensive items.
• Your family wants to plan the vacation in minute detail weeks before you even leave for the airport.

I know what you're thinking. Won't this thing be out of date before it even arrives back from the printer? Surprisingly, no. Almost all of the prices at Disney World update just once a year, in early October. I spent most of the past year creating a book with prices I knew would be outdated, and then have been scrambling since October to recheck the prices (and menu items too, when those changed). The result is the 2007 edition, current as of this printing. But things do change even during the year, and I plan to print multiple times each year in small quantities so as to keep the book up to date. That said, the book is 100% current at the moment, and it's at 274 pages, including menu prices, with those supremely helpful indexes, and even trivia. The book is listed on Amazon.com...

It's been brought to my attention (thanks John!) that people would benefit from knowing what to expect in my new menu book. So I've put the entire Magic Kingdom chapter online as a PDF. In addition to the menu listings and trivia, be sure to scroll to the end, when you can browse the index for the park. You'll see what a useful tool this book will be when visiting Walt Disney World!

One of Kevin's more recent books is called 101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World. There are lots of Disney guide books in the world, but where are the books detailing interesting stories behind odd theming choices, hidden tributes, or the weird references to names or numbers scattered around that probably mean something specific but aren't explained? This book fills that void and was created to be accessible for every level of Disney fan. Newcomers to Disneyana will be bowled over by the volume of detail, the rich layers of self-reference, and the abundance of insider tributes. Readers accustomed to such stories about Walt Disney World will find a useful resource that not only catalogs such occurrences in one spot, but goes far beyond the usual, and brings a wealth of new stories and anecdotes to the table.

The individual 101 Things referenced by the title are all items you can actually point to at the parks, so that the book provides a kind of walking tour of the parks (in guided tour format, rather than "question-and-answer" format) that yields a glimpse of the deeper history percolating below the surface. Moreover, each of the 101 "interesting facts" comes with an explanation as well as an embellishment that goes in related, but different, directions. These embellishments are practically interesting new facts all by themselves, so what you get is closer to 202 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World. Read more about it here.

Kevin is also the author of two books about Disneyland. Follow the links above to buy 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland, a volume that details the insider tributes and homages at Disneyland, and Magic Quizdom, a trivia book dedicated only to questions (with long informative answers!) about Disneyland. To view a description and sample of Magic Quizdom, click here.

Kevin is currently working on other theme park related books, and expects the next one to be published in early 2008.

© 2003/2007 Kevin Yee

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